NYT Review Of SF Wine Bars (And Wine Blogs)

It’s really quite a good read, packed with links and I even discovered a few new places (and blogs) to check out. I love quality, inexpensive wines, and particularly love champagne — my ex-husband (and current friend, yo!) had been in the San Francisco wine import business for ten years before we met. Thanks to this piece, now I can investigate the Bubble Lounge! Wine bars can be snobby, but this piece doesn’t play to that crowd, which is refreshing (and the Marina is only mentioned once, thankfully). I’m only disappointed that Vino Venue was left out. Snip:

(…) But in San Francisco, a city known for both its casual culture and obsession with quality food and drink, a visit to a wine bar can be an unpretentious pleasure. The city has long had wine bars — the London Wine Bar, downtown, opened in 1974 and is said to have been the first in the United States. Now, a wave of new wine bars has been opening, often in unexpected neighborhoods.

I met with Alder Yarrow, the obsessive and opinionated writer behind vinography.com, a blog that exhaustively chronicles San Francisco’s wine bars. We sat at the long zinc bar at Nectar (3330 Steiner Street; 415-345-1377; www.nectarwinelounge.com), a wine bar in the Marina District. The place was just starting to fill up, and summer evening light flooded the tall, narrow space.

After I ordered a taste of 2005 Alois Lageder pinot grigio ($4) – was that a smirk I caught over my choice? — Mr. Yarrow got down to business. “May I see that?” he asked, and I handed him my copy of Zagat San Francisco.

He turned to the list of 45 wine bars in the back and began editing: “Not a wine bar … not a wine bar … wine bar … wine bar … why isn’t the Bubble Lounge on this list? Champagne is wine too!”